John Harper post about Bad Engagment Rolls made me about how to use them.
In the rules, they’re meant to be used as something proactive by the opposition, but sometimes I used them to introduce some unforeseen hypercomplication introduced during the score.
Example:
One of the Red Sashes you murdered was the son of a highly influential Iruvian noble: now it’s looking for revenge.
What do you guys think? Too harsh? Unfair? Not the “right” way to do it?
That sounds like an Entanglement to me, right? Although past entanglements make good engagement complications.
I thought about that, but Entanglements always seem like something that is used to describe the general dynamics of the crime world (not always tied to the aftermath of a score).
Maybe my example was to much Entaglement-like; how about something like:
“You realize only know that the artifact you were going to steal curses anyone who claims it”?
Or:
“You realize only know that the score you accepted was just a way to blame you for something much worse.”
Good examples. Those sound like good engagement complications to me.
I have focused on engagements as things that change the environment of the score that the crew did not account for while planning. So, they have to adapt.
For your example, I would have a member of the crew recognize that a customer in the brothel is the son of a highly influential Iruvian noble–and he brought four tough bodyguards. The heist is more difficult, consequences of being spotted or causing trouble are weightier, and maybe their initial smash-and-grab approach won’t work.
I had a gang set to hit a warehouse, only the time they were going to do it, the son of a crew leader and his entourage were forced to stay and guard the place instead of going to the big game. So there were sullen and angry (and sober) guards where the crew had not expected much resistance–and if they just whacked them, that was an unwelcome escalation.
Wacky things like guests from out of town, a protest in the streets, the flu wiping out the regulars so your bribed staff are replaced, and things like that are ideal for cranking up the difficulty or adjusting the parameters.
To be more aggressive, they could be spotted, or a snitch turned them in, or they recognize a lookout of a rival crew who knows they’re here and may have taken steps, or be preparing to take steps. Now that the situation is different, does the crew have the courage to follow through? Or will they attempt to withdraw and try again later?
Andrew Shields i like you suggestions but many of the things you describe are something I would do for a 4/5 on an engagement roll: more resistance from the target or involving some other faction.
The 1-3 result on engagement suggest something even more troublesome to me (and maybe that’s why I have a hard time with them). I get the idea that it’s supposed to represent some sort of counterplan from the target, and I have troubles coming up with good ideas.
That’s way I started to think of bad engagement roll as unexpected complication tied to the very premise of the score.
John Harper do you plan on adding more examples/types of bad engagement roll in the final rules?